So...getting into the event. I left for work early Thursday morning expecting to go home in the afternoon and watch the event on television. The event I was working was a roundtable then a luncheon with Madeline Albright. Turns out the event host possibly had extra credentials for the event at Invesco and told those of us who were interested to head down to the tour busses after the luncheon to see if any were available.
I closed out my event, got everyone out of the ballroom, punched out and tried to figure out what to do. I was already exhausted and knew it was a slim chance to get in anyway. I almost just went home. After some texting with my husband, I discovered he had credentials to get in. He was at home and exhausted, having gotten up at 6:30am Wednesday, ran camera all day, came home Wednesday evening, slept for three hours, then went BACK to Invesco at 1:00AM to set up for Thursday's event. He worked all night long and into the afternoon and was looking forward to getting some rest. But yanno what...this is history in the making. This is once in a lifetime. When he texted me that he had credentials to get in, I texted back one word: GO.
So at about 3:00pm Thursday, I headed to the end of the complex to the tour busses. Met up with a co-worker who was trying to get credentials too. We just looked at each other and said "well, I guess we're in this together!" There were a bunch of people waiting by the busses to see if they could get credentials too. It wasn't looking good. Then at 3:14, one of the group coordinators came to where we were standing and yelled "the busses are moving in ONE minute. You need to be ON a bus to get credentials to the event!" Doug and I looked at each other and went for the bus, hoping to find empty seats. We got on and found two seats together and hoped for the best. As the bus started moving, a woman started passing out the credentials. There were enough for everyone on the bus.
I then called my mom and told her what was going on. Oh, and asked her to go to my house and get my kids and take care of them for the evening. Grandmas rock. Just sayin'.
The bus made it's way through the crowded Denver streets over to Invesco Field. Now this wasn't just a regular shuttle. This was a bus with special digintaries from foreign countries and other "folks of importance" so we got past the mass of humanity waiting hours to get inside the stadium to a secured area, parked the bus and made it into the staduim in a matter of minutes. What luck! Only problem was...the bus wasn't returning to the complex after the event. It was returning the dignitaries to their hotels in Boulder and out by the airport. It's a long walk from Invesco back into Downtown Denver. Oh well...who couldn't use some extra exercise?
I was able to meet up with my husband once we made it inside and we enjoyed the evening together. Saw John Legend, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. Al Gore spoke. Obama's speech was really good. I'm curious to see just *how he plans to accomplish everything he talked about.
It's finally all over, the delegates and tourists have left town and I'm recovering. My husband is also recovering from extremely long hours and hard work. He was part of the crew for many events throughout the week. He ran camera for several roundtable sessions, helped set up the press booths for NBC and others at the Pepsi Center and Invesco. Here's a picture of some of the booths he help set up at Invesco:
Here is a photo of the south stands at Invesco with John Legend performing on the jumbotron:
Here is a picture taken towards the end of the event:
And the fireworks going off at the very end. It was amazing!!
What a night. I'm so glad I didn't just go home to watch it on TV.
Oh, and here's some video I took with my little digital camera. I'm not a professional videographer, so don't pick on my camera shots, ok?
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